Comment

I'm with you on this. It's not all that ridiculous to wonder whether there are non-trivial links between outward appearance and fitness, so why not outward appearance and behavior?

It has already been established that human females prefer different types of male faces depending on where the females are in their menstrual cycle; specifically, females tend to prefer more masculine faces when the probability of conception is the highest. The "most masculine faces" tend to have a wider facial breadth, AND tend to be associated with higher levels of testosterone. And since varying testosterone levels can also affect the brain and behavior in non-trivial ways, it's not all that stupid to speculate that, as a group, men with wider faces would display certain behaviors more (or less) frequently than less rugged-looking men.

Even if the cause/effect goes in completely the opposite way (for instance, we are socialized to regard wide-faced men as untrustworthy, and based on that treatment it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy), it would still be a somewhat reliable signal of untrustworthiness.

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